Notes from the Spring Creek Arts Guild

Time is such a strange thing. Here we are a month into spring, creeping ever closer to the summer solstice, the longest daylight of the year. Here at the end of April, we have approximately thirteen hours between sunrise and sunset. Compare that to June 20 when we will have more than fourteen hours of daylight and to this coming December 21 when we will have just over ten hours of daylight. When I think about it, it sure seems like there is more than a four hour difference between June and December days.

Since my employment does not have set hours nor days and since my office is in one end of my house, I am fortunate enough not to have to pay much attention to clocks. If left to my own devices, which I often am, I tend to wake up about an hour before sunrise and start thinking about going to sleep around nine or ten at night most nights. Before you start thinking that my schedule is related to my advancing age, let me tell you that I have been that way since I was a teenager. Yes, there have been spells where I stayed out late with friends and slept until the sun was long since up and shining, but those have been short-lived spells.

So one would think that the longer days of spring combined with the lock-down situation we have been living with for awhile now would yield loads of extra time to get things done for an early-riser like me, but one would be mistaken about that. That is why I say time is such a strange thing. It actually seems like I have less time these days.

Now that I think about it, there are some possible reasons for this seeming shortening of time. I have been spending more time than usual seeking out news and information about what is going on in the world, trying (in vain) to get some sense what to expect. The pleasant (except for the wind) weather we have been having has me spending a little time here and there just sitting on the front porch or finding jobs to do outside. I have spent a whole lot more time cooking than I usually do. I have always cooked most of our meals, but I am making more elaborate things and more things from scratch that I would normally buy ready-made. I have been using the unusually quiet time to sort through things that have piled up or have been stored to deal with later—this has become that “later.” Finally, I have spent a ton of time sweeping inside the house and raking outside the house to deal with the bumper crop of oak blooms that we have had this year. I have two fuzzy dogs that are apparent oak bloom magnets, at least until they get inside the house. One more thing—keeping hummingbirds fed has been taking some time, too, not that I am complaining.

Of all of my recent timeconsumers, there is really only one that is a waste of time—the excess of news and information seeking. I finally figured out late last week that I was spinning my wheels on that and decided to put down the phone, turn off the television, and do something productive, like sit on the front porch and watch the hummingbirds. I feel better already. SpringCreekArtsGuild@gmail.com